Koraput: Villagers of Kotia panchayat in Koraput district where Andhra Pradesh is conducting Zilla Parishad and Mandal polls Thursday clashed with Odisha police over the election.
The incident took place at Neredibalsa village after police stopped some of the villagers who were out to cast votes, violating Section 144 imposed by Koraput district administration.
In view of the rising cases of COVID-19 and Andhra Pradesh High Court clearing decks for conducting elections in Kotia panchayat, the district administration had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 Wednesday afternoon which will remain in place till 6:00 pm of April 9, a district administration source said.
Andhra Pradesh is conducting Zilla Parishad and Mandal elections in several villages of Kotia panchayat Thursday. For 1,219 voters of Neredibalsa and Tadibalsa villagers, the administration on the other side of the border had set up a polling booth in Neredibalsa.
Thursday morning, some villagers came out of their houses and marched towards the polling booth to exercise their franchise, throwing prohibitory orders under Section 144 to the wind. However, the police deployed there stopped them asking them to go back to their respective houses.
This led to a verbal altercation between the police and the villagers who kept insisting that they would cast their votes for Andhra Pradesh.
Soon, the verbal duel snowballed into a clash. However, the police managed to calm down the situation.